Hey everyone, Aaron here. SYDHiT’s music coverage has been lackluster – to say the least – so I decided a little while ago that we needed someone to concentrate on that side of entertainment. Claire has written a few things for the site before, mainly relating to movies, but her musical taste is great and I felt that if I was going to trust anyone with a music column it would be her. Don’t take my word for it though, here’s Claire to let you know a little about herself. But Before we do that, I want to make it abundantly clear that I didn’t come up with the title of this article -
Hello, I am Claire and I am now writing a music column. I’ve always found writing about music very tricky, Elvis Costello (or someone like that, maybe it was Frank Zappa, maybe Brian Eno) once said: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”, i.e. it is difficult and possibly a waste of time. The other thing that is off-putting about writing about music is that people will inevitably judge your taste in music. People can be so mean, particularly on the interwebs, and being the delicate flower that I am (prone to crying in the face of adversity and whatnot) that is another daunting prospect. However, I did once write a music review for uni, comparing the lead singer of a band to Ron Jeremy, so clinging to the memory of that former glory here I go…
I have to confess that I will not be original, no doubt I will subconsciously pilfer other people’s ideas and rely on the media to inspire my content. For anyone with a very enthusiastic musical habit I doubt very much that what I write will be informative, but at least I will impart that warm glow that comes from being able to smugly nod and say to oneself ‘I knew that already’.
To provide a little context to my ramblings, the music I listen to is pretty restricted in the sense that the vast majority is of the rock/indie/electronic/hip-hop/county/folk persuasion, released after 1959 and either from the US, UK, Australia or Western Europe. But my taste is also open in that I don’t actively dislike any of the broad music genres… though narrow them down and you can find me ranting on about how awful post-grunge is – I hate Nickleback with the fire of a thousand suns.
WHY IS MY MUSIC SO SHITTY!?!
It being January, one of my favourite musically-themed things to do is read the ‘Best Of’ lists for the previous year, to both confirm my own awesome taste in music (critics agree with me, yay!) and to check what albums have passed me by. I was happy to see PJ Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake‘ top many end of year lists – 16 to be precise – beating Adel (yawn) who came in second with 12 number one placings (this is all from Metacritic, who compile the data from the end of year lists). Though, as Adel’s music ain’t so bad and she does manage to put a stylish black dress on every morning covering the bejewelled bra and knickers I assume all pop-stars are contractually obliged to wear out in public these days, I shouldn’t disrespect her. I mean that’s just, like, the rules of feminism.
This column contains three references to teen-movies of the 80’s, 90’s and today. if you can find them all you will win trivia glory and the people’s ovation and fame forever
Listening to at the moment: The Horrors – Skyling, Real Estate – Days and BBC Radio 6
